Framing and Identity

Neil Lund

2024-10-29

Framing and Identity

Frames

…schemata of interpretation [that enable individuals] to locate, perceive, identify and label experiences

— Irving Goffman (1974)

Diagnosis

What is the problem? Who/what is at fault? Is this an injustice or a fact of life?

  • Are women’s feelings of being overworked a relationship problem or a structural problem?

  • Is poverty caused by poor character or global capitalism?

  • Are the struggles of disabled people caused by an illness and deserving of pity, or do they stem from discrimination?

Disability rights activists protesting Jerry Lewis’s muscular dystrophy telethon

Prognosis

How can this problem be solved?

  • Does addressing climate change require reform or revolution? Can we innovate out of it or do we need to alter consumption?

  • Can we address homelessness with free housing?

  • Should anti-abortion activists try to change attitudes or should they attempt to use the legal system to lower abortion?

“We have watched as politicians fumble, playing a political game rather than facing the facts that the solutions we need cannot be found within the current system.” (Thunberg et al., 15 March 2019)

Motivational

Why should I act? Who should participate and how?

  • Should addressing AIDs take precedence over other social problems?

  • Should “allies” take leading roles in civil rights activism?

  • Do Americans in the mid-west have a reason to care about farmers in Chiapas?

Act Up protesters

How frames matter

  • Change patterns of support, opposition, alliance etc.

  • Change focus from reform to structural change (or vice versa)

  • Shift repertoire toward a preferred set of tactics

  • “Counter framing” to make some criticisms less effective.

Framing drunk driving

  • After WWII, alcohol consumption moved away from “social problem” frames toward frames that emphasized illness.

  • Drunk driving, prior to the 1980s was just one of several alcohol-related health problems

Petition to ban alcohol advertising on radio and TV

Framing drunk driving

  • MADD re-framed drunk driving as a victims right issue:

    • Drunk driving as “The only socially acceptable form of homicide”

    • Carefully avoided general opposition to alcohol, efforts to raise alcohol taxes, or ban advertising

  • MADD reconfigured the pattern of support for policy change: from a progressive-coded regulatory framework toward a criminal justice framing that had bipartisan appeal and won the support of the liquor industry.

MADD founder Candy Lightner

Framing white power

  • After the 1960s explicit appeals to racial animosity were politically radioactive.

  • White power activists got around this through re-framing:

    • “white nationalism”, “white genocide”, “white rights” all attempted to adopt civil rights frames for white supremacy

    • shift in focus toward busing, crime, immigration etc.

a person like me speaks up and says, “Look, I’m interested in white rights”… he’s going to be totally ripped to shreds…. But if a person gets up and says, “Well, I’m concerned about preserving Jewish culture”… then nothing happens.

Identity claims

  • When do identities become salient? Who is the “we” that makes up a movement?

    • Lots of identities exist, but many of them aren’t politically relevant.

Tajfel and Turner: Minimal Group Paradigm

  • Separated a group of 64 school boys based on arbitrary preferences

  • Boys favored their in-group and punished the outgroup, even when at cost to themselves

Painting used to distinguish groups in one of Tajfel and Turner's experiments

Social Identity Theory

Three steps:

  • Social Categorization
    • Who are we?
  • Social comparison
    • How are we doing relative to other groups?
  • Social Identity
    • Desire for positive distinctiveness leads to either assimilation or collective action

Gay Rights

  • Early modern views of gay people stigmatized “buggery” as a behavior, but less as an identity.

  • Psychiatric model made “homosexuality” a fixed characteristic rather than just a behavior: “homosexuality” was listed in the DSM-I under the rubric of “sociopath personality disturbances”

Modern Gay Rights

  • Boundaries became less permeable, leading to heightened repression but also heightened collective action opportunities.

    • Early organizations mostly worked as support groups, but these were a basis for community building.

    • 1970s saw a shift from assimilation and community support toward “gay power” and a positive social identity.

Racial identity

South Africa

  • Impermeable racial boundaries and long-term stability

  • Pervasive inequality and discrimination, prompting resistance organized around “racial” interests.

Brazil

  • Permeable racial boundary system. National myth of racelessness

  • Racial discrimination exists but changes over time and can be avoided through assimilative strategies

Anthony Marx (2012)